The general goal of this proposed 48-month research project is to examine the meaning of food and the experience of eating for elders. This is a proposed study of the personal and cultural meaning of food and eating. Food, dining, and commensality are at the core of cultural definitions of personhood and social relations. Eating is central to the health of elders. As an elder becomes frailer, she or he may begin to loose the capacities to shop, cook, create meals, clean up and the opportunity to eat with family or other close persons. Our working assumption is that eating and food represent fundamentally social and cultural procedures with personal meaning that reflect both on a sense of self and a sense of personal history over time. It is very important to note that this is not a study of nutrition or nutrients, dietary compliance, dietary intake, portions or food values. The proposed research has four specific aims: 1. To explore the cultural and personal meanings, processes and transitions conceming eating and food from an independent life style, through frailty in the community to life in assisted living facilities and nursing homes; 2. To better understand the cultural and personal meanings of "eating," "meals," "dining," "cooking," and similar constructs across later life transitions; 3. To examine gender, ethnic, and setting (urban, suburban, rural) differences with regard to the meaning and experience of food; 4. To examine experiences of long term care staff that prepare, serve and oversee meals about these issues. Data will be gathered from elders living independently, receiving Meals-on-Wheels services, resident in assisted living or in nursing homes. Informants will have, minimally, one functional deficit. All informants will be cognitively alert. Informants will come from urban, suburban or rural areas in Pennsylvania and Maryland. About 25% of the sample will be men and one-third African American. They will be interviewed in extended qualitative, ethnographic interviews about their lives and their experiences, meanings and definitions of issues around food and eating. Standard methods of qualitative data analysis will be utilized. [unreadable] [unreadable]